Fatah Youth had attended Utoya camp for last 15 years, as refuge from Israel’s “state terrorism”
A reader from Canada writes:
This Utoya youth camp thing is getting worse and worse. It turns out that Fatah Youths have been attending this place for 15 years, “learning and sharing experiences on democracy and advocacy for peace and justice.”
The story is from Ma’an News:
Fatah Youth released a statement on Saturday condemning attacks in Norway which have reportedly killed over 90 [sic] people.
“It is with consternation that we have received the dramatic news of an awful terrorist attack against a summer camp ran by our comrades of Norwegian Labor Youth ‘AUF,’” the statement said.
The Fatah Youth group had taken part in the summer camp in the past on the Island of Utoya, near Oslo, where over 90 people were reportedly killed in a shooting spree on the Island and a bomb attack in Oslo on Friday, news reports said.
“Fatah Youth declares its consternation about the terror attack. There are no words to describe an attack against people that have been our comrades in our struggle for freedom and independence. Very few people have stood by our side as much as the Norwegian people, and particularly our AUF comrades.”
“We know those who have been cowardly assassinated. Those are people that have stood for the human and national rights of the Palestinian people both in Europe and while visiting Palestine.
“Fatah Youth has participated for almost 15 years in the same summer camp and our youth has benefited by learning and sharing experiences on democracy and advocacy for peace and justice.
“We hope that those responsible for this criminal terror attack will be brought to justice. Such sick minds should not have a place in any society.
“As a people that has been victim of state terror for the last 64 years, the Palestinian people and particularly Fatah Youth presents its condolences to the families of those killed and sends a strong message of support to our comrades from the Norwegian AUF as well as from other sister parties that were participating in this summer camp,” the statement concluded.
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July 30
Ken Hechtman writes:
Fatah is Norwegian Labour’s sister party through the Socialist International. It shouldn’t be surprising they have contacts and exchanges.
Though the tone of Fatah’s statement does bring something to mind about pots, kettles and the color black.
N. writes:
Ken Hechtman wrote:
“Fatah is Norwegian Labour’s sister party through the Socialist International.”
This sentence is so fascinating. It is like finding a living fossil in a quiet, bucolic, farm pond. It is like walking into a small town general store and finding life-sized images of Lenin and Stalin hung in places of honor.
The sad history of the 20th century is studded with horrible episodes, and often one finds the Socialist International bound up in them. Mussolini broke with the Socialist International over Italy’s entry into World War One, but took much of his Fascist philosophy from that organization. If I recall correctly, Orwell mentions the Socialist International in “Homage to Catalonia” more than once, not always in a favorable context to be sure. The various Soviet-run “peace” groups of the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s were almost always affiliated with the SI.
Vidkun Quisling’s party had a sister party, too, through a different Socialist organization. It seems to me that Norwegian Labor’s alliance with Fatah is a lot closer to Quisling’s alliance than the left would care to admit.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 29, 2011 07:31 PM | Send